


Winterkids

by CastielLovesDean



Series: Compromises [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Clones, Fatherhood, Hydra accidentally did something good, M/M, Multi, Mystery Kids, Polyamory, Team as Family, Triplets
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-01-27 14:40:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21393847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CastielLovesDean/pseuds/CastielLovesDean
Summary: November 2016.  Set about 7 months after the events of Compromises, in which Steve and Tony added a returned Bucky to their relationship, and an amended version of the Accords was ratified.While the team is assembled to celebrate Thanksgiving together, the UN drops off three newborn babies who seem to have Bucky's DNA.  Where did they come from?  What does Bucky do now?
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Compromises [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1426993
Comments: 26
Kudos: 63





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> The prologue includes a series of events that I was going to make into its own fic, but I wanted to get to the kids. I don't like to disappoint, though, so let me know if there's something specific you were looking forward to, and I'll add it to the list.

The summer and fall of 2016 was a whirlwind of life changes for Bucky, Steve and Tony, the Avengers, and many in the international community.

In May, a few weeks after he reemerged during the Sokovia Accords situation, Bucky was upgraded from house arrest at the compound to allowed free rein within the state of New York with a chaperon. Bucky's psychiatrist, Dr. Fields, recommended a therapy animal. Tony was worried about a potential John Wick situation. Tony was overruled, and they started the process of looking for an appropriate companion.

At the end of June, Bucky didn't need a chaperon within the state, but now he could cross state lines with one.

The Asgardian refugee ship showed up in Earth's airspace the very next day. Norway gifted them a plot of land, which they used to establish a colony called New Asgard. New Asgard's status as an officially recognized state was fast-tracked through the UN and finalized on July 20th.

The celebration was short-lived because it was revealed almost immediately that Thor's brother, Loki, had been one of the refugees the whole time. The UN was pissed, the Avengers were pissed, New York was pissed... everyone was pissed. To make matters worse, the way the laws were written, no one could lay a finger on him unless he tried to take over the planet again.

But hey, Bucky finally got his therapy dog, so there's that. Her name was Sierra. She'd been purchased as a puppy and trained for military work, then rejected for active duty on account of being far too social. Their loss was Bucky's gain. She took to the PTSD support training like a duck to water. She moved into the compound in August and followed Bucky everywhere he went.

By then, Bucky didn't need a chaperon anywhere in the country. His path to freedom only moved so fast because President Ellis was pulling the strings, so when the 'pro quo' came in September in the form of the parade that Ellis had thrown for him, Bucky no longer minded. Bucky's apprehension about it was mostly gone by then, and any that remained was mitigated by his awareness that the citizenry had acclimated to him being out in public. He even had a moderate cult following of fans. Groupies, too. There were scores of damaged women who thought he was sexy and fantasized about 'fixing' him after his troubled past. He posed for pictures with random people and autographed the occasional picture or body part.

Bucky, Steve, and Tony could finally be open about their relationship status after Ellis won his bid for reelection in early November. What happened later that month, well... that was probably the biggest change.


	2. Mystery Package

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The UN delivers a package to Bucky.

November 19th, 2016

It was the Saturday before Thanksgiving. While most days, the Avengers would come and go as they pleased, living their own lives, this day saw the whole team assemble to share the holiday together. They chose to celebrate early so that those with primary families could spend Thanksgiving proper with them, and they did it on a Saturday so their youngest and newest member, Peter, could join them without it interfering with school. Even their international and interplanetary members, Ruth, Shang-Chi, and Thor, were partaking in the American holiday with them, and T'Challa promised them that he would bring his sister for dinner. They invited Doctor Strange, but he left it up in the air whether he'd show up at all.

Happy and Pepper said they couldn't stay all day but that they'd show up for dinner, like T'Challa and Shuri. Everyone else who didn't usually stay at the compound arrived the night before. Happy picked up Peter after school, with Aunt May's permission, of course, dropped him off at the compound, and went home to Pepper. Rhodey flew there in his War Machine suit. The Quinjet and its autopilot function picked up Thor from New Asgard.

Scott and Hope picked up Clint in a small private plane. But when they got to the compound, instead of landing on the tarmac, they aimed it directly at the building itself, scaring the crap out of everyone not in the loop. It shrank seconds before it would have collided with the building, then they flew it through an open window and landed it on the living area floor. They got out, reverted themselves and their luggage to normal size, and stuffed the tiny plane into one of Hope's bags while passersby glared at them.

Saturday morning, Steve, Bruce, and Clint woke and had breakfast at their leisure sometime after dawn, having gone to bed at a sensible time. Everyone else slept in late in a heap in the living area after a late night of gaming. Clint and Steve were tempted to stay up with them, but Steve had already been up two nights in a row, and Clint needed to be rested so he could spearhead Thanksgiving dinner for fifteen to twenty adults.

The plan wasn't for Clint to do all the work himself, but he was in charge of the turkeys and the kitchen. He'd organized stations and a schedule for everyone else to contribute. Steve and Bucky weren't really qualified to cook anything, so they had offered to stay nearby to assist in whatever way was deemed helpful. Bucky watched some kitchen knife skills videos on the internet and picked it up like an idiot savant, so he was assigned to chopping duty for the day. Steve could handle basic things like peeling potatoes, shucking corn, and boiling water.

Plans are made to go awry, though, aren't they?

It started when Shang-Chi's text alert sounded, and his hand found its way out of the pile of sleeping Avengers to read the message. “Bucky, it's for you,” he said drowsily.

“What is?” Bucky asked, equally drowsy.

“That.” Shang-Chi gestured to the window, past which an aircraft not unlike the Quinjet was landing on the helipad. This one bore the official mark of the United Nations.

Bucky blinked at the plane and groaned. The pile was so warm and somehow comfortable. He didn't want to get up. He figured Shang-Chi wouldn't be so nonchalant about this if it were anything bad, though, so he just untangled himself from his extended family and walked barefoot through the door into the wintry November air. Sierra followed him out.

On the asphalt maybe ten feet from the ramp sat some curious black luggage. There was a roughly three by three by three foot cube on casters and with a top that zippered along three edges. It was soft, all opaque nylon netting and padded edges. The lid must have been reasonably sturdy as it was supporting a messenger bag and a large, full duffel bag that one of the UN guys placed there as Bucky approached.

That UN guy clearly saw Bucky walking toward him, but he turned around and headed back up the ramp. No one else was on the helipad. Sierra, who was usually glued to Bucky's side, took a keen interest in the cube. She was sniffing it like it was full of bacon or maybe squirrels. Lucky she hadn't been a bomb-sniffing dog, or Bucky might have been alarmed.

“What's this?” Bucky shouted at the jet, gesturing to the stack of luggage. Instead of receiving an answer, the ramp retracted and the engine fired up. Bucky realized that they were going to leave without so much as a word in explanation. Jerks. He looked at the luggage. He couldn't imagine what they might have found that they were so certain was his and needed to be delivered in such a way. Does nobody use mail anymore?

He sighed, annoyed at the UN's behavior, then he grabbed the edge of the cube and rolled it toward the door. The door swung itself open, aided by a mystical red aura. Wanda was standing just inside, wide awake, with a shit-eating grin on her face. Bucky wondered what had her so cheery. Just a minute ago, she'd been asleep in that pile with him.

He stepped inside the door after the luggage and before his support dog and noticed that _everyone_ was up. The house's residents and all their guests were on their feet in the living area, in varying degrees of sleepiness, converging on his location like a herd of zombies.

Tony was grandstanding for Peter's camera, using the fake Stark Internship Retreat to cover for Peter's presence. “We're live at the Compound, where fan favorite Bucky Barnes just received a mystery package from the United Nations, and Wanda Maximoff loves surprises so much that she woke us all at the crack of dawn to come watch him open it!”

“It's 10:30,” Steve corrected Tony.

Come on, Bucky thought. The mystery luggage was curious, sure, but not enough to wake the entire house. And it was definitely not curious enough to be broadcast live.

“Did the UN find some old stuff of yours while investigating Hydra?” Sam asked.

Bucky shook his head. “I didn't have 'stuff' when I was with Hydra. _They_ had _me_. _I_ was the 'stuff.'” He started with the main compartment of the messenger bag. It held an accordion file that was full of papers, but not overflowing. He glanced at some of the pages. They looked science-y. “Bruce,” he asked, “do you mind looking through these and figuring out what they say?”

“Yeah, no problem.” Bruce took the file, sat on the couch nearby, and started going through it.

Bucky ensured there was nothing left in the messenger bag, then he set it aside and turned to the duffel bag. It was a large duffel bag, and it was quite full. He unzipped it and peered inside. The contents made him frown in confusion. Someone must have left him the wrong duffel bag by mistake. This one was chock full of baby supplies: formula, bottles, pacifiers, onesies, ointment, and loads of diapers and wipes.

He looked at Wanda, who still looked like she was having just the best day. Everyone else looked about as confused as he felt. “What is this?” he asked no one in particular. “Some kind of 21st century joke? Europe celebrate April Fools Day in November or something?” Nobody suggested an explanation for the random baby stuff.

Tony was squinting at the big wheeled cube with that look he gets when he's figuring something out. “Set it aside, see what's in the box.”

“What's in the boooooox?” Clint singsonged.

Most of them scoffed. Thor, Steve, and Bucky just looked at him.

“It's from a movie,” he explained. “Whatever, just open it.”

Bucky turned his attention to the cube: the same cube that had Sierra whining in a bit of a fluster this entire time. He unzipped it, dread growing in his belly. He couldn't say what had him so apprehensive about a damn box that he was certain was perfectly safe. Finally, he flipped the sturdy lid back, and what he saw in the box made his blood run cold.

All the color drained from his face. The only thing he could hear was his heartbeat whooshing in his ears. At least it was, until a hand on his metal shoulder made him jump. He looked at Steve and reminded himself to breathe. His vision stopped swimming, and his hearing came back.

Scott deadpanned, “I think I know what all the baby stuff's for.”

It was for the baby. Or: babies. There were three of the tiny pink fuckers sleeping in the cube.

  
  



	3. Spawn of the Raft

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team finds out why the babies were given to Bucky and where they came from. Bucky's freaking out.

Bucky looked around the room. Steve was looking at him. Peter wasn't filming anymore. Bruce was obliviously looking through the stack of papers. Most of the team looked confused. Clint, Scott, and Wanda seemed more focused on how cute the babies were than the incongruity of the situation. He stopped at Shang-Chi and Ruth, the UN's ambassadors to the team. “Guys?” he demanded of them. “What the hell?”

Shang-Chi and Ruth looked at each other, both just as shocked and perplexed as every other Avenger. They shrugged and shook their heads.

“We have no idea,” Ruth swore.

Shang-Chi added, “We'll make some calls.”

Bucky nodded, letting them go about their business and make their calls. He remembered that Bruce was going through a bunch of paperwork. “Bruce, do those papers say anything?”

Bruce answered from the couch. “That depends. What was in the box?”

“Uh....” Bucky looked in the box again, almost like he expected to see something else. “Three babies.”

“Ah.” There was a brief paused while Bruce audibly flipped some pages. “They were born two days ago, November seventeenth....”

“Why did the UN bring them here?”

“Because they have your DNA.”

“That's not possible. I haven't had sex with a woman since the thirties.”

Tony cut in, “Who's the mother?”

Bruce shrugged and shook his head. “Bucky's the only person listed on the birth certificates.”

“Where were they born?” Hope asked.

More paper rustling. “It's a Massachusetts birth certificate, but there's no county or city listed, just coordinates. 42 degrees north, 67.5 degrees west.”

“That's more than a hundred miles off the east coast,” Vision pointed out.

All the air got sucked out of Bucky's lungs.

“The Raft,” Clint acknowledged ominously.

No. No, no, no, no, no.

“Don't the US Marshalls operate the Raft?” Scott asked. “Why is the UN mixed up in this?”

Please, just stop.

Natasha explained, “The US Marshalls run the prison, but five of the prisoners there are officially in UN custody. They have people stationed at the prison just for them.”

Bucky stood frozen in time, watching this play out like a slow-motion car accident. Maybe no one would say it aloud. Maybe they could all pretend these babies sprang from the ocean like magic.

“Five prisoners,” Rhodey repeated. “The Winter Soldiers.”

Everyone looked at Bucky as they came to the same conclusion he'd already reached. “You think that Hydra... _bred_ me... with,” he paused to swallow against some bile that was threatening to eject itself from his stomach, “_that_ _woman_.” It wasn't a question; Bucky was thinking the same thing.

Bruce blinked. He seemed to be considering his words. “Well, if they got the babies from her, she would have only been a few weeks pregnant when she was in cryo. That would put conception shortly before she went under, some time in the early nineties, so if you didn't have sex with her....”

Bucky winced. “Ew!”

Scott was as clueless as always. “I thought you liked women.”

“I don't like Nazi bitches!” Bucky hissed a bit more harshly than he'd intended. He wasn't really mad at Scott. His brain had chosen that moment to bombard him with speculation on _how_ Hydra might have bred him with her.

Bucky had never been attracted to the female Winter Soldier, with her dead eyes and rare but cruel smile. And Hydra always had to convince him their bidding was the right thing to do, no matter how many times they fried his brain. The chair had thankfully left his moral center _and_ taste in people more or less intact. He was absolutely certain he would never have fucked her. Not willingly.

He was also absolutely certain Hydra wouldn't let a little thing like consent get in their way. He was tasting bile again as his thoughts raced. The chair messed with his memories, but they always came back, even if they were off or incomplete, and he had zero recollection of any sexual contact whatsoever during the time he was enslaved. How could they have done something like this and he had no idea?

He looked at Wanda, who wasn't smiling anymore. She'd been unspeakably helpful when he came to the compound and his mind was in pieces. She was the one who put him back together. She had even once said – with his approval – that she would obliterate any memories that were especially painful. As thankful as he was for all her help, he needed to know. “Wanda....”

“No.”

“Huh?”

“I didn't see anything that would explain this. Bucky, if I saw something that made me think you might have children somewhere, we would all have spent the last several months scouring the planet for them.”

A soft round of agreement made its way through the room.

“Hey,” Sam gently intervened, drawing on years of experience helping traumatized war veterans. “We're getting ahead of ourselves. None of us really know what's going on here. Bruce still has a hundred papers to sift through, Ruth and Shang-Chi are calling everyone they know, and nobody's got Hydra's number like our boy, Steve. We will get to the bottom of this. I'm sure.”

Bucky took a deep breath and tried to relax. As irritating as Sam could be, he was right.

Sam continued. “But that's later. Right now, there are three helpless little babies who need your attention, and they deserve it a hell of a lot more than Hydra does.”

“Yeah, and they're a hell of a lot cuter than Hydra, too,” Scott added. He started to reach into the cube, whispering, “Hey, little guy.”

Bucky grabbed Scott's wrist with his lightning-fast reflexes and latched on. He gave Scott his deadliest Winter Soldier stare and growled.

To his credit, Scott remained calm even while he looked about as alarmed as anyone there had ever seen him, eyes wide and eyebrows nearly into his hairline. “My bad, man; I don't know what I was thinking.”

“Use your words,” Thor said, repeating something Tony once said to him when he'd gotten too handsy.

“Let him go, Buck,” Steve added.

“I touch them first. Then Steve. Then everyone else.” Bucky released Scott's wrist.

As Scott was massaging his abused joint, Tony started directing everyone. “Alright, everyone form a circle. Steve, you're here next to Bucky.” He pointed to Bucky's immediate left. “Peter, I'm going to have you film on my phone and stream it live on the team's official Facebook account.” Tony already had his phone in his hand and was loading the screen that would allow live streaming. When it was set up, he handed it to Peter. “Everyone be careful not to say or do anything you don't want public. Definitely no outing Spider-boy. Aunt May would beat me to death with a lawn chair.”

The commotion wasn't really that bad since no one wanted to wake the newborn infants. It just felt that way piled on top of the stress of suddenly being responsible for three tiny babies and the nauseating, semiconscious speculation of what HYDRA had done to create them. “Stop,” he said firmly. Everyone had already formed the circle, but the low thrum of conversation stopped. He felt a reassuring hand on his left shoulder. He opened his eyes; he hadn't realized he'd shut them. “Just hold on,” he said more calmly. “I gotta make a phone call.” He pointed at Peter. “Don't record yet.” Bucky dialed his psychiatrist, Dr. Fields.

The phone rang for a very long ten seconds before her answering machine picked up.

Bucky took a breath. “Hi, Doc, it's Bucky Barnes. I, um... the UN just dropped three babies off for me at the compound and wouldn't tell me anything, but Bruce says the paperwork says they have my DNA and they were born at The Raft, so we think Hydra must have created them for some reason, but I don't remember anything that might lead to this, so....” He didn't know what else to say. “If you could please just call me for a minute when you get a chance, that would be great.”

Bucky hung up the phone and returned it to his pocket. He took a deep breath and looked at the babies again. _His_ babies, supposedly. He knew when he was a teenager that he wanted to be a father. At the time, he assumed that he'd have to get a wife in order to do it. As much as he wanted to be with Steve, he never thought that was really an option if they didn't want to be mobbed to death in their sleep. With Hydra, he didn't have the chance to think about his own wants or needs, and after.... His mind was so damaged that he didn't think it was a good idea. Now, he was with Steve publicly and with support, but still he hadn't thought of pursuing fatherhood because of how complicated their situation was: three men in a relationship, in the public eye, with very dangerous jobs and no shortage of enemies. Bucky had given up the dream of having kids. He simply thought it wasn't meant to be.

Today, three of them were dropped into his lap. He decided he would not care how they came to exist. They were his, and Hydra was not going to torture him any more. “I'm ready,” he said. “You can start filming.”


	4. What's in a Name

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky holds his kids for the first time and names them.

“Is it on?”

Peter nodded from behind Tony's phone.

“We're good?”

“It's broadcasting live, Mr. Stark.”

“Excellent.” Tony addressed his phone, which he knew was posting live to the Avengers' official Facebook account. “So there's been a lot of confusion at the compound this morning. What we know so far is that representatives of the United Nations just dropped off a mystery package for Bucky Barnes. Everybody, meet the three newest Avengers. Peter, make sure you get a good shot of them.”

Peter walked over to the cube and panned the camera from Bucky's confused face down to those of the amazingly still-sleeping newborns.

“Paperwork claims they're Bucky's kids,” Tony explained to the viewers. “We have no idea how that could possibly be true, but they're here now, so I guess he's keeping them.”

Bucky made a face at Tony. “Of _course _I'm keeping them.”

“Yeah, that's what I said.” Tony gestured for Peter to aim the phone at him again and went back to talking to it. “Now, nobody here, even Bucky, has so much as touched these little germ factories, so we're going to see almost every first contact... right now.”

Bucky was still making that face at Tony thanks to that 'germ factories' comment when Peter focused the phone on him. He looked briefly at the camera, but he didn't have anything to say to it, so he just turned his attention to the babies. He had kids now, and he was about to touch them for the first time. Did it suddenly get hot in here? Why were his hands sweaty? Why was the _metal _one sweaty? That arm doesn't sweat! Ah, well, it was clearly in his mind. He shook his broken head to clear it.

He reached into the cube and froze. He realized he had no idea how he was supposed to pick up a newborn baby.

Clint must have figured that out pretty quickly because he was suddenly kneeling opposite the cube from Bucky with a knowing smile. “Buck, you ever pick up a baby before?”

“Not really,” Bucky admitted. “I mean, I've held a few babies, but they were a lot older, and they were always handed to me by the mother.”

“Well, it's actually pretty easy. Just make sure to support the head, neck, and spine. Generally, right-handed people will place the left hand under the body to support the weight, and the right hand under the head and neck to stabilize it. Lift the baby and bring it close to your body by gently maneuvering it to the side so your right hand sets its head in the crook of your left elbow. Then use your right arm to support its side so you don't drop it if it moves.”

Bucky followed Clint's instruction, and before he knew it, the baby was safely cradled in his arms. A high-pitched, happy noise unexpectedly escaped him, and he blushed.

“I can _hear_ the oxytocin,” Bruce said from the couch, causing Tony to snort.

Bucky looked at Steve, who had the most loving look on his face. Bucky couldn't tell if Steve was acting smitten with him or the babies, but it was probably both. He looked down at his... son? Daughter? “Hey, Bruce? Are these boys or girls, or....” He looked at each of the babies in turn. They were all wrapped in generic white baby blankets, and there were no deliberate indications of the babies' genders, as people tended to do.

“Boys,” Bruce answered. “All of them.” Bucky could hear the frown in his voice when he added, “According to this, they're actually identical.”

“...Is that bad?”

“It's not bad, just not what I expected. Do you mind if I redo the DNA tests?”

“Uh... yeah, sure. Go for it.”

They heard the sound of shuffling papers as Bruce stuffed the documents back into the file. “The birth certificates are right in front so someone can write in their names.”

Names. That's right, Bucky had to name them now. Well maybe he didn't _have _to name them right this second, but they needed to be told apart and damn if Bucky's kids were going to be referred to by _designations_, even for a day. That would be some kind of Hydra bullshit.

“Oh, wow. Suddenly you gotta come up with three names?” Scott repeated aloud. “Man, it took me and Maggie months just to whittle the list down to the top ten.”

“No, not three... I've had my first son's name picked out since 1932.”

Everyone already knew what that name was, but Sam was the one to say it. “Is it Steve? I bet it's Steve. I will bet anyone here one thousand dollars that it's Steve.”

Steve smiled.

“No one's taking that bet, Sam,” Rhodey said.

Peter had a different take on Sam's comment. “Sergeant Barnes, if you take the bet and name that baby anything other than Steve, Sam will have to give you a thousand dollars.”

“Oh come on, man!”

Bucky smiled. To be honest, Peter tended to annoy him, but he was also very good at annoying Sam, which endeared him to Bucky somewhat. “Tempting,” he admitted of Peter's suggestion. “But I have to go with Steve. Or, Steven.”

Tony picked his commentary back up. “You heard it here first, people. Baby number one: Steven Barnes.”

“Can someone write it on the birth certificate?” Bucky asked the room.

“I'll do it,” Hope volunteered. She left the circle and headed to the couch, where the papers were. She took the birth certificates out of the file, glanced at all three of them, and asked, “Do you see a wristband or something with a number on it? That way I can write the name on the right document.”

“Uh....” Bucky hesitated. Baby Steven was all bundled up and sleeping so peacefully that it would be a shame to disturb him. Also, Bucky wasn't confident that he could hold him in one arm and rifle through his blanket with the other safely. “Just a sec, Hope. Steve, you wanna take him?”

Steve perked up. “Yeah!” He stepped over to Bucky and held out his hands like he was about to catch a basketball.

Bucky was pretty inexperienced at babies, but he knew that wasn't right. He looked to Clint.

Clint seemed to have the same thought. “You haven't held a lot of babies, either, I take it?”

Steve put his hands down and seemed embarrassed. “Just the ones people handed me for photo-ops.”

“Uh-huh. Well, this baby is too small to be held like that. Did you hear what I told Bucky about supporting his head?”

“Yes.”

“So that's what we're going to do. Here, stand in front of Bucky and mirror the position his arm is in. Then Bucky, remember how you maneuvered his little head into your elbow? You're going to undo that a little. Get your right hand under his head and neck, keep supporting his weight with your left hand, and gently lift him off your forearm, setting him down on Steve's forearm. Then let Steve take over from there. Steve, since Steven is in your right arm, use your left to guard him from flopping to the ground.”

Steve and Bucky successfully followed Clint's instruction. Once Steve had a good grip on the baby, he asked Bucky, “You wanna look for that ID number?”

“Yeah.” Bucky carefully pulled back part of the blanket to get to Steven's hands. He was frustrated to note that neither wrist had an identification band on it, so he would have to further risk waking him in order to get a look at his feet. A little more digging miraculously managed not to wake him, and Bucky found a little band on Steven's left ankle. “There's a number on this ankle band.”

“I just need the last digit,” Hope said.

“It's two.” Bucky heard Hope select a page and write down, presumably, Steven's name. Bucky did his best to tuck the blanket back the way he'd found it, then took a step back to get a look at Steve holding Steven. God, that man looked good with a baby in his arms. Bucky couldn't help the dopey smile that formed on his face, and he suddenly understood the look Steve had given him earlier. He was tempted to lean forward and plant a kiss on Steve' lips, but the last thing they needed was to drop or squish that baby live on Facebook. He turned to Tony as Steve softly cooed at Steven. “Doesn't Steve look good holding a baby?”

Steve blushed, but Tony shrugged.

Bucky made a face at Tony. “You don't think he looks good with a baby.”

“I think he looks like I just got demoted to fifth place.”

“Tony,” Steve admonished gently. “You don't need to be jealous. Here, hold him. You'll see.”

Tony leaned away from Steve and made no move to accept Steven. “Mmm... I don't like to be handed things.”

Steve looked serious then. He spoke to Tony with his stern Captain voice that he usually saved for missions. “Tony... you're going to hold our stepsons.”

The look on Tony's face was all the evidence anyone needed to be certain that it hadn't occurred to him until that second that Bucky wasn't the only one who was suddenly thrust into parenthood. Steve and Tony were his significant others; that gave them both ample paternal responsibilities. Tony released a defeated sigh and let Steve hand him baby Steven. “He's not going to pee on me, is he?”

“Only if you ask nicely,” Sam quipped.

Scott added, “But no, you're definitely going to get peed on.”

Clint agreed with Scott. “And pooped on and barfed on and spit-up on.”

“So much spit-up.” Scott managed to look traumatized as he said it.

Natasha nodded.

Tony gave baby Steven a dubious look, and Clint laughed at him. “Don't worry. This time next year, that stuff won't even faze you.”

Despite Tony's insistence on acting disinterested, Rhodey was onto him. “You know, you act like you don't like kids, but you're that guy who winds up personally crafting elaborate furniture and devices to keep your kids safe and happy. I bet the compound has a baby roller-coaster come spring.”

Tony knew he'd been called out and smirked. “I actually have something in mind that'll be ready in a couple days.”

“These children are too small for thrill rides,” Vision said.

“Yeah, no shit.” Tony sounded annoyed. “It's not a _thrill ride_. It's a....” He stopped himself. “Actually, I want it to be a surprise. But _obviously_ it's going to be perfectly safe.”

Sierra sat in front of Tony and whined up at him. She didn't bother with him too much most days, preferring to stick to Bucky like his shadow. But she couldn't quite reach her head far enough into the cube to get to her human's new kids, so she seemed to be trying another tactic.

Tony looked down at her. “Hello, Sierra. Trying to say hi to your baby brother?” He knelt down so she could get a good look at Steven. She pressed her cold, wet nose right against his dry nose. He squirmed in response. Sierra licked his nose in that same spot, but just with the tiniest tip of her tongue she could manage.

“Why does she get to touch him before we do?” Sam complained.

“Oh I'm sorry,” Tony said, not sounding sorry at all. “I thought it was immediate family first.”

“And the dog outranks us?”

“The dog outranks _you_,” Bucky said.

“She's slobbering all over him.”

“Well they're going to have to get used to that, aren't they?”

“Can we move this along?” Clint interrupted. “I have a lot of cooking to do today.”

Bucky agreed and bent down to remove another baby from the cube. Bruce had said they were identical, and they certainly looked and felt identical so far.

“Do you already have a name picked out for this one, too?”

Bucky cocked his head at the second baby. “Not really,” he admitted. “I can just name him after myself, though. James Buchanan Barnes, Jr.”

“You don't even like the name James,” Sam argued.

“Hey what's wrong with James?” Rhodey demanded.

“Uh... there's already two of you?”

“There were already two Stevens, if you include Strange,” Thor said.

“There's only one Tony, for the record,” Tony hinted obviously.

“I don't mind the name James, it's just not what anybody's called me since I was eight. Wait, why am I explaining myself to you? They're _my_ kids, Sam. I can name them Fat-head One, Two, and Three, and it wouldn't be your problem.”

“Oh now you're gonna name them _all_ after yourself?”

Bucky scowled at Sam. It was half-hearted, though, since he had fun exchanging barbs with him and he was too excited about having kids to be too upset about something so inconsequential. He looked at baby James sleeping in his arms. He realized he was no longer satisfied with just holding him. He wanted something else. “Clint, how do I hug him?”

“Carefully?” Clint answered unhelpfully. But then he elaborated, “So with your hands supporting his body and head, you just slowly bring him up so his head is on your shoulder and his body is on your upper chest. It's more of a snuggle than a hug, but it's the closest you'll get until he can hold his head up on his own.

Bucky was happy to take the snuggle. He put James against his shoulder like Clint described. He couldn't believe how peaceful it felt. He knew that babies could be loud and messy and difficult, but in this second, with his tiny newborn son snuggled calmly against his shoulder, it was the most serene experience he'd ever had.

James started to stir, just the tiniest baby movements that were oh so adorable. His eyes were still closed and he wasn't able to do much, but he was just barely able to lift his head about half an inch off Bucky's shoulder before the effort was too much.

That's when the screaming started. Baby James let his squishy baby face collapse right into Bucky's shoulder: his metal left shoulder. The half-inch drop may not seem like much to an adult, but for a small newborn baby, it was plenty. The scream was loud and shrill. Bucky wondered if the intensity of it was made possible by his super soldier DNA or if that was normal. Either way, he started to panic. He looked at Peter, who was in front of him at the time, camera pointed at baby James. Peter returned Bucky's alarmed look. Bucky couldn't hold on to the baby anymore, afraid he'd just get hurt again. He turned to Steve. “Take it,” he begged. “Takeittakeittakeittakeittakeittakeit.”

Steve quickly but carefully took the crying baby from Bucky and did his best to try to soothe him.

Bucky didn't know if it was the noise from James, or it was some sort of empathy, but the next thing he knew, baby Steven started screaming, and then the third baby still in the box. Wanda was trying to shush Steven, as he'd been basically dumped on her after he started screaming while Tony was holding him. There was nobody to comfort the third one, though, all alone in the cube.

Bucky stared at the screaming last baby and felt awful. He wanted to pick him up and try to help, but he was afraid his metal arm would just make things worse.

“You know, one of your shoulders has skin on it.”

“Sam!” Steve scolded.

“What, Steve? Dude has two shoulders and he puts the baby on _the metal one_!”

“Lay off him, Sam. I mean it.” Steve was using his Captain voice again, and Sam shut up.

Clint was in front of Bucky, helping out again, trying to talk him down over the screaming baby. “Bucky. James is fine. I can't tell you how many times I accidentally kicked my kids when they got underfoot. They're resilient. Yours happen to be super-soldier babies, so they're probably even more resilient.”

Clint made good points, but that didn't stop Bucky from feeling bad about what happened. “That seemed like it really hurt.”

“Well it probably did. Babies are very sensitive to pain. It's your job as daddy to help them learn how to deal with it when it happens.”

Bucky looked over at James, who was starting to calm down with Steve's help. Steven was already calm, thanks to Wanda. The third, unnamed baby was still pretty upset. He might have actually gotten even more hysterical.

“You hear that?” Clint asked needlessly. Vermont could probably hear it. “He needs you to pick him up.”

“I don't know if-”

“Look, man, he doesn't care that you're bionic, alright? He's upset and he just wants daddy, so pick him up and calm him down. And I guess... maybe use your other shoulder.”

Bucky frowned but picked up the third baby. He carefully put him against his right shoulder as Clint and Sam suggested. It felt less natural holding him against his dominant arm, but he could get used to it. “Tony, you think you can make me some skin?”

Tony nodded. “FRIDAY, do you still have the schematics for Bucky's current artificial arm?”

“Of course, boss.”

“Could you print out a quarter-inch thick silicone covering to fit it? The whole thing.”

“Color preference?”

“Skin color.”

“There are over a thousand variations of human skin color. You'll need to be more specific.”

Tony rolled his eyes as Rhodey and Sam especially but a few of the others smirked at FRIDAY's response to his accidental faux pas. “Well it's for Bucky, so how about _his_ skin color?”

There was a slight pause before FRIDAY announced, “Fabrication commencing. Estimated time to completion is twenty-five minutes.”

“Excellent.” Tony addressed Bucky. “So the silicone will give your kids a softer target to smash their faces on, but if you're looking for something more skin-like, with touch receptors and whatnot, I can have a few prototypes ready in like... two and a half weeks.”

“Two and a half weeks?” Bucky didn't want to sound ungrateful, but, “Didn't you build your first Iron Man suit in less than a day?”

“A: it was my _second_ Iron Man suit; and B: I have many time-sensitive projects to complete very soon and I think your silicone sleeve should suffice until then.”

“What projects?” Steve demanded. “You were just telling me how bored you were yesterday.”

“Oh, honey, that was sooooo twenty-four hours ago. For the last fifteen minutes, I've been mentally designing the world's most advanced nursery and planning a baby shower.”

Bucky tried to hide his idiotic grin. Tony could be abrasive and crude, but it was at times like this that he could see what Steve saw in him. He looked at Steve, and Steve had that smug told-you-so look on his face.

“Called it!” Rhodey said.

“No-one likes a show-off,” Tony retorted, earning pointed stares from everybody. There was an awkward pause. “Two weeks from today work for everyone?”

Everyone chimed in with agreement. Bucky tried to stop it from getting too far. “Guys, that's really nice, but I don't need a baby shower.”

Natasha changed the subject, “No, what you _need_ is to name that baby so we can all hold him already.”

Oh shit, that's right. Bucky focused on the now-quiet baby pressed up against his right shoulder. “Uh... to be honest, my list only ever had two names. I figured if I needed a third, I'd have time to pick one out, and my wife might have some ideas.” He snuggled the baby a little tighter and spoke directly to him. “I'm sorry, little guy. I need a minute to come up with something.”

“You know,” Tony said, “Anthony is a classic name.”

Bucky hadn't missed what Tony said earlier. “And there's only one Tony so far, right?”

“Yeah there is.”

Bucky didn't want to call his son Tony. He liked him enough, but he wasn't his favorite. Still, he didn't want to disinclude him, either. “Tell you what. Steven's middle name can be Anthony.”

“Sweet.” Tony pumped a fist low in the air as if he'd won something. “Square deal.”

“My father's name was George,” Bucky stated, speculating out loud. “Steve's was Joseph.” Tony caught his eye, the next logical person on the list, and that old shame of what he'd done to Tony's parents reared its ugly head. Everyone stayed quiet because that story had long since been public information. Bucky was tempted to name this baby after Howard. Howard deserved it. But as selfish as it was, Bucky couldn't think of the man, his friend, without this overwhelming sadness. He didn't want to attach those feelings to his kid. “What would make this easier is if one of these kids were a girl. Then I could just name her after Wanda.” He smiled at Wanda, who'd become his best friend over the course of the summer.

Vision had an idea. “You could shorten Maximoff to Max.”

“Max?”

“Max Barnes sounds like a farm supply conglomerate.”

Wanda reached over and smacked Tony upside the head.

Bucky shook his head at Tony's nonsense. “That's okay. Once my kids start calling you Papa Tony, everyone's gonna think you own a pizza chain.”

“I actually might own a pizza chain, I should look into that.”

Bucky took the baby off his shoulder and held him on his arm like he had the other two. “I like Max.”

“Should I put it on the birth certificate?” Hope asked.

“Yeah. It's good. Thanks, Vision.”

“Happy to help, Sergeant Barnes.”

“Does he have a middle name?”

“We'll just do George. Might as well.”


End file.
